History of origin and development
In the 1960s, for the first time in history, computer technology and computers were used for automation in various areas of business. At the same time, systems for planning material requirements were also developed. In a basis of functioning of MRP-systems there was a concept of the specification, as the list of making elements of a product or a product. The specification shows a product of the enterprise in a cut of components, spare parts, details entering into it. The production software contained the data on time interval, kinds and quantity of ready products which the organization planned to release. With the help of BOM and MPS, a procedure of disaggregation of specifications was carried out, the results of which provided the organization with information on the volume of materials required for the production of the selected quantity of products according to MPS. Further, relevant information on this volume of materials was transformed into a series of purchase/repurchase orders and production.
Specifications of materials
Fixed and pre-configured materials have permanent specifications, which are copied to planned orders created by running the PPM.
The super specifications used for the configured materials contain both a variable part and a fixed part.
The variable part is used to produce only a certain product variant and the constant part is used for all variants.
Quantitative provisions of MTO products that are included as subitems in the order of delivery are created as elements of variable size in the production order. The universal products of a purchase order are real materials with a product specification that relates to material planning, ATP inspection, delivery and payment. Quantitative items are used to determine the size of a product in a purchase order, and this information is transmitted through an interface from SAP to Quintiq for packaging and production planning and then from Quintiq back to SAP for production orders. Quantitative provisions are defined in Quintiq for each package, as well as for each production order that is created using the SAP interface.
Different material numbers are created for the elements of quantity items depending on the use.
Since the number of items is added to the final production order by Quintiq, it is not included in the production order that was created from individual sales order items. Thus, they are also not included in the super specifications of the configurable products.
Specifications for projected products
The specifications for the products to be designed are not created in the system in the same way as the components. Such specifications are created in SAP, using the interface from BOCAD with the help of an intermediate .txt-file, which is mono to create or change in Excel.
There are certain materials that are pre-configured and produced in Obninsk/Balabanovo mainly for standard buildings. It is possible to configure specifications for pre-configured materials such as standard weirs, coverings or beams. In this case, standard SAP functionality will be used to create specifications for pre-configured variants. This procedure requires that all components used to produce such products are entered, with the required quantity in the basic units of measurement. Production also requires the inclusion of validation of planned waste, which will also be reflected in the specification.
Returning to the history of appearance and development of ERP-systems - high efficiency of MRP systems could not compensate for one significant drawback, namely, the lack of accounting in their work of limited production capacity of the organization. This fact has led to addition of the general functionality of MRP-systems by the special module on planning of requirements in capacities. Thus, MRPII systems designed for planning all resources of the enterprise appeared on the market. As a consequence of the gradual evolution of MRPII systems, as well as their further functional improvement and additions, there was a new class of systems - ERP.
The main differences between ERP-products and MRPII-products are usually called:
- The greater variety of types of enterprises and industries, as well as the types of activities of companies;
- support of resource planning in various areas of activity;
- Possibility of management of group of the independent companies, and also corporate structures;
- Growing functionality in a part of financial planning and management;
- management of multinational corporations, including support for multiple time zones, languages, currencies and accounting systems;